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27 December 2015

The Legal History blog signalled a free preview to Simon Stern (Toronto)'s introduction to Book II of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, to be published by Oxford University Press, under the editorship of Wilfrid Prest (Oxford).

Summary:

This draft excepts three of the six sections in the introduction to Book
II, on the law of property ("Of the Rights of Things") in William
Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. The volume
forms part of the Oxford Edition of Blackstone, and is due out in 2016.
The three sections excepted here cover the aims of Book II, its
treatment of property (including intellectual property), and its
influence. Blackstone is often praised in vague terms for his style, and
the section on his influence also attempts to explain concretely some
of the stylistic features that distinguish his writing. Besides an
introduction, each volume in this edition includes the editorial changes
that Blackstone made to successive editions of the Commentaries,
explanatory footnotes, and tables of the cases, statutes, and legal
texts that he cites. The introduction to each volume discusses the
book’s aims, subject matter, publication, reception, sources, and
influence.